Residents of Urbana, an upscale condominium off EM bypass, started their day with prabhat pheri, Sri Ram flags in hand.
Residents of South City on Prince Anwar Shah Road decorated their premises with saffron flags and flowers and held a puja in the evening.
Neighbourhoods that usually showed religious fervor only on the few days starting from Mahalaya, in the Durga Puja season, played Ram bhajans over loudspeakers.
Local priests were high in demand as many households conducted their own Ram puja.
The city celebrated the consecration of the Ram temple 900km away, in Ayodhya, with the kind of enthusiasm that was rarely seen before.
“We had a lot of events today. The day started with a prabhat pheri with residents marching inside our housing complex with Sri Ram flags early in the morning. Slogans of Jai Sri Ram were reverberating through the early morning silence. We did not feel cold when we walked. Such was the enthusiasm,” said Nitin Maheswari, a resident of Urbana.
The prabhat pheri was telecast live for residents who could not make it.
Several gated communities organised pujas and yagnas; some distributed bhog among residents and had a feast to celebrate the day.
Manoj Gupta, a resident of South City, said they procured 100kg laddoos and also arranged for “bhog prasad”.
“We had arati in the evening at our temple that has been decorated since Sunday,” Gupta said.
The temple at South City was decorated with yellow and saffron marigolds and the housing complex was wrapped in saffron flags.
A cultural programme was organised at Diamond City West where children performed while devotional songs were being sung.
“It is like a festival. We are lighting diyas, children are performing in cultural programmes. It is almost like Diwali. A large number of people have come forward to participate,” said Deepak Agarwal, a member of the executive committee at Diamond City West in Behala.
The celebrations were not limited to gated communities. There was excitement even at the roadside temples. In many of them, people queued outside to offer prayers as they do on special occasions.
“There are many small temples along Tiljala Road. Everyday people come and offer prayers. But today people were singing bhajans and then distributing laddoos to passers-by,” said an officer at Tiljala police station.
Residential neighbourhoods that are traditionally known for Durga Puja witnessed possibly their first Ram pujas and heard chants hailing Sri Ram as clusters of people organised pujas in local temples and distributed laddoos.
A group of residents in a New Town neighbourhood organised a yagna on Monday morning and set up a small kitchen where they cooked khichdi and sabzi to be distributed among the poor.
“For us, Lord Ram does not belong to any religion. We want to worship him as an epitome of truth,” said Jayjeet Singh Bedi, a resident of New Town.
Police officers who spoke on condition of anonymity said the number of Ram pujas across the city was “unprecedented”.
“It would be difficult to quantify (the number of Pujas) as there was no formal permission taken for the pujas. There were no pandals. At some places, the people had erected stages and shamianas. But we had not allowed anyone to block thoroughfares,” said an officer.
The rush to temples in pockets of central Kolkata like Burrabazar, Posta and Girish Park was more than in parts of south Kolkata.
A senior officer said no untoward incident was reported till Monday evening.
“It was like any other festival day. We were alert. There were adequate personnel on the roads,” said the officer.
